Timeline of Publishers' Bindings: 1890-1899

This decade is considered the “era of the artist-designer,” as trained, professional artists began to turn their talents towards book design. It became possible for artists to work solely as book designers, and many were employed as in-house designers by major publishing firms. Some of the most successful and prolific designers were women, such as Sarah Wyman Whitman, Margaret Armstrong, and Alice C. Morse.

The elaborate, fussy covers of the 1870s and ‘80s gave way to thoughtful, simplified, and restrained layouts. A wide range of artistic movements influenced book design in this decade, including Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts, and the Poster style.

Morse, one of the leading binding designers of the decade, asserted that a book cover should suggest the contents of the volume: “A love story should be dainty, as a rule. Essays require something dignified and severe.” For Ford’s collection of lighthearted short stories and plays, Morse created a stylized Arts and Crafts-inspired design.

This binding was designed by the Decorative Designers, a firm founded by architect Henry Thayer in 1895. The firm employed a number of designers, each of whom was responsible for a different element of a book’s design. The firm’s signature of conjoined Ds can be seen in the lower right corner.